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2022 ACDA Eastern Region Conference

Spotlight Choirst Choirs
Spotligh

Building Bridges: Jewish Chorale of Greater Philadelphia and the Rut-
gers University Singers. Her ensembles have performed
New Choral Repertoire in in variety of venues around US and have participated

Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish, Ladino in tours to the Middle East and Europe. Fluent in Rus-
sian, Ukrainian, and Hebrew, she has worked with nu-
This session will share little-known choral repertoire merous choirs, soloists, and conductors as a language
of love songs from a variety of ethnic traditions, repre- coach. Zavadsky teaches at Curtis Institute of Music
senting a variety of cultures within Israel (both Jewish and Temple University.
and Arabic) and a larger Jewish world. Attendees will
learn appreciation for and gain a deeper understanding
of the culture through a particular musical composition. Disrupting the Choral Hierarchy:

This session address specific questions of programming Singing in Partnership
this repertoire in any context, from precision of pronun-
ciation to larger matters of cultural appropriation.
Many choral structures, large and small, are built
around various pyramidal hierarchies. Within youth
choirs, this hierarchy may consist of a conductor, as-
sistant conductors, various student leaders, and, at the
bottom, novice singers. Within larger youth programs
with multiple choirs, there is often an elite choir atop
the pyramid that singers aspire to enter from childhood.
What happens when we actively resist those hierar-
chies? This session hopes to illustrate one of the prima-
ry tenets of the Music in Schools Initiative: there is no
Excellence without Equity.

Nashirah enters its 19th year as the only auditioned,
community-based chorale in the Greater Philadelphia
area performing exclusively Jewish and Jewish-themed
music. Their distinct musical programming embodies
the broadest possible range of Jewish repertoire, bring-
ing together choral music of many lands, languages, and
cultures. Nashirah’s singers come from Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and Delaware united by a commitment to
musical excellence and a special desire to enable all lis-
teners to experience the great beauty of the Jewish mu-
sical tradition. Morse Chorale was founded in 2015. It is a mixed-
voice youth choir comprising New Haven Public School
Julia Zavadsky is a recipient of the Elaine students in grades 4-12. While most are at home on the
Brown Award and a winner of numerous stage of Yale’s Morse Recital Hall, Morse Chorale has
international choral festival competitions. most recently been featured in virtual collaborations
She is the artistic director of Nashirah, the with Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble, the Yale Camer-

20 CHORAL JOURNAL January 2022 Volume 62 Number 5